3 Ways Your Diet Is Turning You into a Jerk (And Everyone Is Too Scared to Tell You)

Any time you change the way you eat, it will likely impact your mood. Sometimes, that's good thing, like when you trade refined white bread for fiber-rich quinoa at lunch and find that you have more sustained energy so you're less likely to turn into a tired, hangry monster by 4 PM.

Other times, though, those changes can end up having a not-so-positive effect on you mood, even if you think you're making tweaks that are supposed to be good for you. And things can get a little hairy. Here are three ways your diet might be destroying your personality—and what you can do to recover.

1. Your friends notice that you're getting angry…

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Diets involve using your inner grown-up voice a lot. No, you can't have a chocolate muffin for breakfast because you know it's pure sugar. No, you can't have more salmon even though it's healthy because you know it'll push you past your daily calorie limit. And no, you definitely shouldn't meet your friends for drinks because alcohol always leads to French fries for you.

But after a while, all those no's can really start to piss you off. Studies show that having to flex our self-control muscle over food has a tendency to make us pretty angry. For instance, when people were asked to choose between an apple or a chocolate bar before watching a movie, 64% of those who went with the healthier choice opted to watch an aggressive movie instead of a funny one. But among people who didn't have to choose a snack before the movie, only 55% picked the angry flick.

2. You're starting to feel cranky, irritated, or just a tad bit unenthused…

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Noticing that you're on the grouchy side? Or just feeling blah and tempted to blame your mood on your last meal? While what you eat can have a big impact on how you feel, what you aren't eating can also affect your mood, says Gary Wenk, PhD, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Ohio State University and author of Your Brain on Food.

If you decide to do a month-long vegan cleanse, for example, you stop eating your usual turkey sandwich lunches and chicken-and-veggie dinners. But chicken and turkey (along with milk, yogurt, and cheese) are sources of the essential amino acid tryptophan, which your brain needs to produce the feel-good hormone serotonin, Wenk says. So when your levels plummet after you cut those foods out of your diet, you could find yourself on the fast track to Bummer Town. (Here are 19 ways to cut extra sugars.)

Slashing your carb intake can have a similar effect. After dieting for a year, people who stuck with a super low-carb diet tended to have crappier moods compared to those who ate a higher-carb, lower-fat diet—even though both groups took in the same number of calories, according to one study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Who knew a bowl of brown rice was the key to happiness?

3. You just might kill someone (seriously)…

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Your brain normally burns about 12 doughnuts' worth of glucose, or sugar, on a daily basis just to carry out its basic functions, says Wenk. So if it suddenly starts getting less because you're skipping your usual 3:30 granola bar, your mind will likely go haywire.

And when that happens, you might end up going postal. In one Ohio State University study, researchers tracked the blood glucose levels of 107 married people for 21 days. They also gave each person a voodoo doll that was supposed to represent their spouse, along with a set of 51 pins. At the end of each day, participants were instructed to insert pins in their voodoo doll based on how angry they were with their spouse.

What happened next might freak you out: People with lower blood sugar levels tended to stick their voodoo dolls with more pins—even if they had previously reported being satisfied with their relationship.

Of course, that (hopefully) doesn't mean the hangry folks would go on a violent stabbing rager in real life. But letting your blood sugar get too low definitely could put you in the mood to fight. (Here are 5 foods that might be making you depressed.)

OK, so should you never try to diet again?
Well, yes and no. If you need to lose weight, these findings aren't permission to throw in the towel and eat burgers and bonbons for the rest of your life. But they could mean that making sudden, drastic changes to your eating might not be the best move. "You need a balance of all the usual stuff, you just need less of it," Wenk says.

And if you're doing the moderation thing and still feel like you're gonna lose it? Hang in there. "It should be temporary," Wenk says. "You have to recognize that as you get healthier, your brain might still be complaining loudly. But it will adjust."

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